The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for updating system configuration information, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for automatically determining information, such as type and version information, related to hardware installed on remote equipment, such as a cell station.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional cellular telephone system 100. The cellular telephone system 100 includes a central control station 200 that interconnects the cellular telephone system 100 with any suitable telephone switching system, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) 120, and one or more cell stations 300. The cell stations 300 are generally remote from the central control station 200 and are typically placed throughout a cellular telephone service area. Telephone calls may be selectively placed by the central control station 200 between standard land line telephone subscribers of the PSTN 140 and a cellular telephone unit 130 or directly between two cellular telephone units 130, in a known manner. For a more detailed description of a suitable cellular telephone system 100, see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,554, incorporated by reference herein.
The central control station 200 typically performs a number of conventional functions, including supervision and control; assigning telephone calls to the appropriate cell stations 300; and switching functions to interconnect callers. Each cell station 300 includes equipment to serve a plurality of cellular telephone units 130 simultaneously placing or receiving telephone calls. Thus, the cell stations 300 each include a plurality of transmitters and receivers (or transceivers). Likewise, each cellular telephone unit 130 includes a transmitter and a receiver (or a transceiver), tuned to the respective transmit and receive frequency of an assigned communication channel.
In order for a cell station 300 to perform required functions, the cell station 300 typically incorporates various pieces of hardware equipment. The same cell station 300, for example, might include a set of time division multiplex access (TDMA) transceivers and a set of code division multiplex access (CDMA) transceivers, each for communicating with different classes of cellular telephone units 130, and other hardware equipment, such as control and timing boards, in a known manner. In addition, the same cell station 300 might include a plurality of time division multiplex access (TDMA) transceivers, for example, each having a potentially different manufacturer, model number or version. Furthermore, in the event of a failure or when routine servicing is required, a given piece of hardware on a cell station 300 might be suddenly replaced by a compatible piece of hardware, having a different manufacturer, model number or version.
In order for the central control station 200 to properly communicate with and supervise each of the various remote cell stations 300 and its various included hardware components, however, the system configuration information stored by the central control station 200 must match the physical hardware elements that are actually installed on each cell station 300. Some systems for determining system configuration information, however, including type and version information of hardware installed on remote wireless equipment, are labor-intensive and require considerable manual effort. Specifically, an operator at the central control station 200 typically manually enters the type and version information for all hardware installed on a given remote cell station 300
As apparent from the above-described deficiencies with conventional techniques for obtaining system configuration information, a need exists for an automated technique for automatically determining system configuration information, including the type and version of hardware installed on remote equipment.
Generally, according to one aspect of the invention, a technique is disclosed for automatically determining system configuration information, including the type and version of hardware installed on remote equipment, such as a cell station. According to a further aspect of the present invention, a modified central control station communicates with each remote cell station to perform an iterative system configuration process that progressively refines the system configuration information, until the actual installed system configuration is obtained, or until manual intervention is required.
The system configuration process initially assumes a system configuration having the cell station fully installed with a default hardware component. The default xe2x80x9cguessxe2x80x9d configuration is sent to the cell station. A default message is then sent to the cell station which, in turn, queries each of the hardware components for their associated type and version. The cell station communicates with the installed hardware utilizing a conventional message protocol associated with the default hardware component. The responses from the actual installed hardware components are collected by the cell station and returned to the central control station. The returned responses provide information that can be used by the central control station to ascertain the type and version of each hardware component actually installed. The assumed system configuration is refined over a number of iterations, until the system configuration is obtained, or until manual intervention is required. In this manner, the system configuration process can obtain the system configuration over a number of iterations, with little, if any, manual involvement.
A more complete understanding of the present invention, as well as further features and advantages of the present invention, will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description and drawings.